Pulp Fiction is a cult film of the 90’s directed by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary (in 1994). This american gangsters film owes its name to the « pulp magazines », famous reviews in the 20th Century. It was rewarded by the « Palme d’or » in 1994 in Cannes. It’s a non-chronological fiction starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Bruce Willis. The scene takes place in the underworld of Los Angeles through three hoodlums stories interlaced.

Tarantino acts himself in this film as Jimmy Dimmick.

Because of his non-linear story, i’m going to disclose you the introduction in order to avoid any spoilers :On the morning, in a diner, a couple of crooks, Pumpkin and Yolanda are talking about their activity at risk and they finally decided to rob the place.

In an another shot, Vincent Vega (who is coming back from Amsterdam) with Jules Winnfield have to deliver a briefcase to the mysterious content to their boss, Marsellus Wallace. Whereas they are talking about their daily life, Vincent entrusts to Jules that Mr. Wallace tasked him to hang out with his wife, Mia Wallace, only for the evening. Then, they interrupt a three-thugs-breakfast to settle accounts between them. Winnfield and Vega accuse them to have scamed Marsellus.
The film is divided in several parts :

  • The Introduction
  • Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace’s Wife
  • The Gold Watch
  • The Bonnie Situation
  • The Breakfast

I really like this film thanks to its pleasant aesthetic, and all of the characters because they are charismatic and interesting, even if my favorite is Vincent Vega. I love the atmosphere of the movie, blending references about pop culture, black humour and violence. Besides, in my opinion, all of the songs in the film are amazing and well-choosen. The music amplify the aspect and the absurd of various scenes. I like the fact that it’s a non-chronological story, adding an original touch, all the element gradually fits together.

If you’ve never watched this film, I really recommend it !!
And if you have watched this movie, what is your favorite moment ?

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewlwcEBTvcg[/youtube]

« ZED’S DEAD BABY, ZED’S DEAD »

favourite book

UN SECRET, Philippe Grimbert .

I would tell you about one of my favorite french book .

First , this book is an autobiography about Philippe Grimbert , writing in 2004 , the 5 of may .

This book tells about the story of one jude boy  , Philippe . He is small and sickly

Let me speak about the story .

he narrator is Philippe Grimbert. The story takes place in the 1950s.

Surrounded by silence, bending under a guilty family , the narrator feels like this : he  need to tell a past he imagines. quiet until Louise, old friend of his parents and confidante of the child, come all to a sudden reveal a heavy, disturbing secret.

It invented brother, Simon, actually existed and died in a concentration camp with his mother, Hannah, the first wife of Maxime. Suddenly the whole weight of this dark and hidden past will arise and disrupt the representation of the world that had forged the child.

Now , I let you think about the development of the story …

Of course , you can read the book or watch the movie …

Southpaw

            Southpaw is for me the best movie that I’ve seen in 2015, I cried several times during watching the movie because it is a emotional movie. Usually I don’t watch action movies because I don’t really like this kind of movie, I prefer horror movies, fantastic movies and tragic movies.                                                                                               But this movie changed my opinon because there is a beautiful and emotional story in this movie : the story of Billy Hope, a famous boxer, this is the synopsis :  « Billy Hope leads a lavish lifestyle with his beautiful wife Maureen and her daughter Leila. He was able to offer this life dream thanks to league titles in world boxing. His perfect world falls apart when his wife is killed. At the bottom of the hole, Billy is ruined and lost custody of her daughter who is pulled, because justice believes he is no longer able to fulfill his role as father. While his entourage abandoned him, Billy tries to rebuild himself from Tick Willis, a former boxer now coach and manager of a boxing gym . Billy will have to start at the bottom of the ladder to regain the trust and custody of her daughter »                                                                                                                           The story is very sad, he had a wife, a daughter, many friends, a luxury house, a luxury car, a career  and overnight he has no wife, no daughter, no house, nothing. He was at the height of glory and he is now at the bottom of the hole, he lost everything.

My favorite moments are when his wife died because it looks like so real, he cries and he asks help and he holds her in his arms. This moment is very intense

And this moment when his daughter is angry about him so he tries to get her out

Afficher l'image d'origine

I think this story was already happened to someone, because somepeople already lived this kind of story, lose everything overnight. But Billy Hope keeps hope to recover his life, his daughter and recover his career.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2ebPxhoLs[/youtube]

Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard

Pretty Little Liars is full of stressful and mystery book.
The story of Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily is full of surprises and intrigue. They receive messages of a certain « A » who threatens to reveal their secrets.

I think Pretty Little Liars is a very fascinating book. We are really attached to the characters that can be dark.
After each book, several questions come into my head. But the answers are still in future books … I tell you, it makes you addicted. We want to know who is A!
Only those who have read the books can answer this question … But Chutt! It’s a secret!
However, I find that some intrigue are too annoying.
I didn’tlike watching the series, but I loved the books! The story is much like gossip girl ….

THE LONGEST RIDE

Today I’m going to talk about a movie released this year, which completely broke my heart. The longest ride is a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks novel entitled as well ‘the longest ride’.
This film was directed by George Tillman Jr. You may not know the movie; however, it features two actors having a pretty great fam thanks to their names. Those actors are Scoot Eastwood (son of the famous director Clint Eastwood) and Oona Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter).
Well, if we just watch the movie poster, we can suppose that the film is only about a love story. Yet, more than a simple romantic film, it shows two similar stories, two different lives which have many similarities. Sophia and Luke, two young people, live in North Caroline and had just fallen in love. But because of their life’s aspirations, they thought they could never be together. Indeed, Luke lives for rodeo whereas Sophia lives for art and has to go to Manhattan for her studies. Nevertheless on a rainy night, just after a dinner they had together, an unexpected event brought them closer together: not only did they save an old, they also save his whole life story that had been put into letters. Since then Sophia befriended with this old man. Afterwards, she became aware of all the concessions that the old man and his wife had to make to love and live more. In the same way, the old man’s experience will have an impact on Sophia and Luke’s life.
I admit that the first quarter of the movie didn’t really appeal to me. But since the emergence of Ira (the old man) the story takes a new turn. Indeed, we see his life since he met his first love at the beginning of the forties. This movie shows us that life is all about choices and decisions, and that why I love it.

The Leftovers by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perotta

Hello, guys ! Today, I will talk about a drama series named The Leftovers, created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta. This series is based on Tom Perrotta’s book which has the same name as the series (in French, its name is Les Disparus de Mapleton). Actually, two seasons have aired and a third and last season is going to come out this year.

The story takes place one day, a 14th October like the others. This day, 2% of the global population disappears without any explanation… Three days later, we follow the every-day life of people in the little town of Mapleton. Like all the others, they have lost neighbors, friends and lovers since the mysterious event of the 14th October they called the “Sudden Departure”. Life continues, but nothing is like before anymore. Nobody has forgotten what happened and all the people who disappeared. Kevin Garvey, the Chief of the local Police, has seen his family completely change since the terrible event and has to deal with the consequences. Everybody wants to move on but a mysterious cult, with unknown intentions, called the “Guilty Remnant” emerges…

The Leftovers is a not a series like the others. Lots of people don’t like this series much because they found that’s too slow and the plot is not very interesting at all. But, I definitely don’t agree with them. All the things (the characters, the story and the mystery) can fascinate and upset us. Yeah, this is not a series with a lot of action, twists and deaths. In The Leftovers, this is not the plot that make the characters but the characters that move forward the plot of the series. The music is also very beautiful. This series is gorgeous and moving. I don’t say that everybody is going to love this series, but I can say that you can check an eye one and you will see after ! 😉

Girl Online On Tour, Zoe Sugg

Girl Online On tour is the second novel Zoe Sugg wrote. She’s a very famous youtuber from the UK who does beauty and life style videos on her channel called Zoella.

This novel is the continuation of the book Girl Online published in 2014.

In this story a 16 years old birtish blogger, Penny, is the narrator.

Penny starts blogging about her problems, school drama, friends, family, and boys and she became pretty famous. But during a family trip in New York she met a musician called Noah and fell in love with him, as as a result her blog became very popular. In this book we will follow her and her rock-star boyfriend ( Noah ) on his European tour during the summer . But being a super star’s girlfriend is hard, Penny will be threatened by some jaelous fans, she’ll also not be very welcomed by Noah’s band members and it’ll be hard for her to follow her boyfriend because of his shedule… So Penny will start wondering whether she’ll stay on tour with Noah or not. She misses her family, her best friend Elliot, and her blog, “Girl Online »…

I already read the first book « Girl Online » and Santa brought me Zoe Sugg’s second book, I almost finished it and I love it !

The Wave by Todd Strasser

Hi Everybody !

Today I would like to speak about a book : The Wave (or « La Vague »). This book was written by Todd Strasser and it was published in 1981. Strasser is an american author. For his book : The Wave, Todd Strasser decides to be based on real facts in the United States in 1969. This book was also adapted into a movie. This best-steller became a history manual in Germany.

The story takes place in a peacefull californian High School, where Ben Ross teaches history. To explain Nazism to his students he decided to creat an experimental movement with a slogan, a salute, a leader and a name : The Wave. He thinks he can control the group but unitl the day everything becomes totalitarianism.

I loved this book ! He wants to show a reflection on the group effects, on the individualism freedom and also on freedom of thought. The Wave is scary because it’s real facts. The reader is itself hypnotize by the movement, it’s very strange. The writing of Todd Strasser is simple but poignant.

« The classroom experiment is went to far »

George Orwell, 1984

 

Hi Everyone ! 🙂

Today I would speak about a book that I discovered for our « TPE » : 1984 by George Orwell. Orwell was an English author but he was born in India. 1984 is a dystopian science fiction novel, it was published on the 1949. For this novel Orwell was influenced by Aldous Huxley. Orwell describes a totalitarian area guarded by a Chief Big Brother.

In 1984 the world is divided into tree mains areas : Oceania, Eurasia and Estasia. These three areas are constantly at war. Oceania lives under a dictatorship :  » Big Brother is watching you « . Winston, the main character, thanks to his job, discovered some Truth, that he noted in a secret diary. So he is against the society and decided to rebel by integrating a group of rebels. But all that is not it a lie ?

I love this book because it shows us how the world can be cruel, I also loved the writing of George Orwell it’s very interesting ! But this book looks strangely like our society, we are being watched all of the time whithout even knowing it… Big Brother is watching you…

 » SIMETIERRE  » Stephen King

Today I’m going to speak about a novel written by Stephen King entitled « Simetierre ».
This novel is a fictional story but it can considered also as little bit horror.
This work exist also in movie but I don’t know if he’s more known or not .
The story talks about a family « Creed  » who moves in a other town,in a big house near to an animal cimetierre …. they becames friends with their neighboor, days pass and things strange happened and nobody can explain it. One day their cat is found dead, the father going to burry him in the animal cimetierre and the next day …the cat came back to life …
An other day their son ( 2 years) died, so their family is overwhelmed sorrow and the father decided to burry him in the cimetierre ( for his son come back too) but things are different this time, the child come back to life but he was looks possessed by a demon …

I loved read this book because there are a lot of suspens and at the end I was anxious for the family , I recommend it for all the people who love suspens and horror !

The Call of The Wild

Hi everybody ! Today I will speak about a book I really enjoyed when I was younger and which has still the same effect nowadays.

This novel is from Jack London, a famous American writer, well-known for his books about animals and adventures, especially about wild animals, like wolves (or here wolf-dog), bears…

The Call of the Wild is, as White-Fang one of his most-famous books in that genre.

The story is set during the Gold Rush (little wink to the English cinema ! But it wasn’t my purpose at the beginning). So wa have the context of the « how the West was won » with Natives and so… 😉

All along the book we follow the evolution of Buck, a normally dog who (I won’t say “which” because he’s not a thing, and in this book we have his point of view but I know that in general we use “which” instead of using “who” for animals… But when you love them you can just not do that because you know animals worth more than being considered as things without spirit and emotions…) will gradually become a wild wolf-dog because he discovers a new world and realised that life wasn’t always happy.  He passed throughout different hardship and always keeps going. Buck follows his instinct and gets back little by little his wildness and freedom. For instance he was sold to someone who made husky (I found we said that for dogs who make race with sledge) sled races and because of running everywhere in the wilderness he came back to his basics instincts. He faced many things in the wild and therefore he had to become a real husky to survive in this tough world. It was a fight to survive. This philosophy develops throughout the novel, as Buck’s life becomes a very hard struggle for existence in which he must either kill or be killed.

One day his new and good master was killed by Indians so Buck, who was totally mad with rage killed his master’s murderers. That was at this moment that he became a Wolf again.

I know the plot could be pretty hard to understand and you may think that it’s not really interesting; however we have a very meaningful and denouncing story. Here Buck is like a “wild and fluffy” human to my mind and that’s why I really loved this book. Moreover the story really catchs your eyes and is entertaining.

See you soon ! 🙂

The Green Mile by Stephen King

The Green Mile is a fantastic serial novel  by Stephen King in 1996. It has been edited in six differents volumes named The Two Dead Girls, The Mouse on the Mile, Coffey’s Hands, The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix, Night Journey and finally Coffey on the Mile. Thoses volumes were published on newspaper. After, the story was reduced as only one volume.  The story is concentrated on the characters Paul Edgecomb and John Coffey ( Like the drink, only not spelled the same ). There’s also anothers important characters who’s called Brutus « Brutal » Howell, Harry Terwiliger and Dean Stanton whose are Paul’s associates, and even a mouse named Mr.Jingles that it’s considered as a very important character.

Here’s the story

In the thirties, Paul Edgecomb, a 40 years old men, is a death row supervisor in a prison, especially in the E Block, with his associates Brutal, Harry, Dean and unfortunately Percy Wetmore, a young and nasty one. One day, they receive a new prisoners who is very special. It’s John Coffey. He looks harmless and act like a child who is afraid in front of his parents. Paul and the others man are wondering about his case. Actually, Paul read the murder report and has been completely shocked about it :
Two young girls have been raped and strangle until death.

Paul as doubt about him as a murderer, because he think that he’s too sweet and kind. Much time past and a lot of things happened. In the E block, they met Mr.Jingles, a little mouse very clever and mysterious. She became the friend of everyone oin the Block, especially to one prisoner named Eduard Delacroix. Actually, supervisors found that John Coffey has got power of healing and resurrection. He has resurrect Mr.Jingles when Percy just smashed her with his foot. It’s at this time that the truth has been obvious for Paul, Brutal, Dean and Harry : John is innocent and just wanted to save the two little poor girls. Paul did the best to help him. Few moments before his dispatch, he ask him if he wants him to escape the prison. Unfortunalety, he refuse the propostion and accept the death as a good friend. He was tired of living, as he said to Paul :  » […] I’m tired, boss. Tired of bein’ on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we’s coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There’s too much of it. It’s like pieces of glass in my head all the time […] « 

 A Long time after, Paul talk about what happenned in his life to one of his friend, and explain that he’s actually 111 years old, as the same for Mr.Jingles that he’s keeping safe in a hut in a forest. He think that it’s his punishment to have killed on of the miracle of God. Paul’s wondering about his death, he hope that she’s will be here as soon as possible.

This Stephen King’s novel is one of my favorite, and one of his most famous and tragic. Through this story, King denounces the racism and the death penalty. The most interesting thing, is that he wrote this story in the moment. He didn’t know when it will end, how many volumes he will write, or how will turn the story. He has given a new a new sense or literature with the serial novel, and has won the award Best Bram Stockard Novel in 1996.

The most sensitive thing in this book is John Coffey. Just the thaught of the death of a poor innocence gave me shiver. Another thing could give a call into a question : In this book, I didn’t realize it yet but, I felt so concerned about the faith of Eduard Delacroix and one other prisoner. I’ve been attached to thoses characters but I have surprised myself to feel compassion to two murderer. It’s a complete called into a question, and it’s by this way that Stephen King denouces de death penalty.

Finally, the talented Franck Darabont, who is directed The Walking Dead, has been the director of the movie The Green Mile in 2001. With the one and only Tom Hanks who is playing Paul Edgecomb, this movie won four awards for the Best Movie in 2001, and the Best Script.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctRK-4Vt7dA[/youtube]

 » We each owe a death – there are no exceptions – but, oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long. « 

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Today I am going to talk about a book that I love and that everyone should read.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an American novel of the best known. Published in 1960, it was so successful that it won the Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of American literature. The author, Harper Lee based her story on fiction but she included biographical elements of her childhood. This novel can remind us of a bildungsroman (a coming-of-age novel) and a detective novel.

The plot is setting in a little town of Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Atticus Finch raises his two children Jem and Scout alone. He works has a lawyer. Man of integrity and rigorous, he is appointed by the court to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. This crime is punishable by the death penalty…

This book moved me to no end. It provides a wonderful reflection on the human condition and especially on the childhood, carried by the narrator Scout Finch.                              Scout is the little girl I wanted to be : sassy and feisty. She hangs around the neighbourhood, spends her time reading and climbing trees, she listens to the Sunday service at the church of blacks. She hates school and dresses, she responds tit for tat Aunt Alexandra who criticized her eternal dungarees stained with dust and the people she is mixing with. For Christmas, her father Atticus gave her a rifle. He even thinks that having a gun is an incentive to get shot, and asked her never to shoot the mockingbird. Because killing this bird would be « a sin ». Scout knows why : she is also a strange bird that can’ be put in a cage, who observes and tries to understand. She cries of rage at the stupidity and injustice, but she understands that we can also fight with words.

I absolutely recommend this wonderful book that tells us a lot about respect for others.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 1865.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, or just « Alice in Wonderland », is a novel by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson),

The story speaks about a little girl who fell in the big hole, because she aimed to follow a cut white rabbit with a watch ! Inside the hole, there was a beautiful fantasy world !

In this amazing world, completly , Alice met a lot of characters.

She made friends with the Chesire cat with his extraordinary smile, the white rabbit who was always late, the blue caterpillar who smoked, the twins Tweedeldee and Tweedeldum,  and the crazy Hatter with his friend the March Hare !

During her trip, Alice met the Reg Queen and her soldiers cards ! Because the Red Queen didn’t like Alice, she had to come back at her home. So she left the Wonderland.

It’s a great and magical novel with many engaging characters ! I love this story, because, I find that Alice refers to me. There are two movies adapation. One directed Disney, with some musics and enchantment. And one directed by Tim Burton, with some specials effects, and it’s so amazing !

Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is an american romantic dark fantasy by Tim Burton that came out in 1990, starring one of my favorite actor, Johnny Depp, and Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest and others.

It shows the story of Edward, a young man created by an inventor. This latter died before finishing Edward, letting him with scissors instead of hands in his castle. Then he is hosted by one family of the city but falls in love with the daughter, Kim. At the beginning he is welcomed by everyone in the neighbourhood, everyone likes him and make him work with his « hands » by cutting the bushes in an original way. An incindent make all these people hate him then and he runs away from them by going back to his castle.

I’ve watched this movie several times since I’m a kid and I love to watch it during winter time.

T.E.D talks, ideas to change our world

I know what you mean, what a strange title… I have got a question for you: can you name videos, apart from Gangnam Style, cup songs or cats doing funny things, that have more than one billion of views on the web? The answer is basically one of the very best things of the internet: TED.

These three mysterous letters mean « Technology, Entertainment and Design » and it began about 30 years ago as a conference in Silicon Valley. Many engineers or scientists bought tickets to be able to hear experts talking about a lot of different fields. The main idea was to share their knowledge and luckily, try to make the world change. Those talks had only one rule to respect, which is that they must not spend more than 18 minutes. It means that the experts had to keep it simple and understandable for everyone, but also intellectually stimulating. You can now find plenty of these speaches on Youtube by example, or also in audio, if you have time to listen to them. I would have never thought that someone could possibly share worth-spreading ideas in 18 minutes, but they definitely do it brillantly! Some messages are very profound, such as Bill Gates’ talk of 2010, « The kill decision shouldn’t belong to a robot » by Daniel Suarez or the inspiring « My philosophy for a happy life » by Sam Berns. Others are original and entertaining such as « The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain » by Sarah-Jayne Blackmore or « Gaming can make a better world by Jane McGonigal, which you should both tell your parents to watch…

You must be thinking: « why would I watch such intellectual videos, moreover in English? Isn’t it too serious? » Let me tell you, you have just read this whole article written in a foreign language. Aren’t you the perfect person for it?

taylor wilsonHere are some great TED talks, such as:

  • « Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor », Taylor Wilson For those who think that teenagers cannot do much, here is the talk of a 13-year-old boy who built a nuclear fusion reactor in his parents’ garage. And it’s not all…

 

  • « Strange answers to the psychopath test », Jon Ronson. Or why there are many, many more psychopaths that you thought, maybe even very close to you…
  • « Your body language shapes who you are », Amy Cuddy.A simple method to change the way others see you
  • « The family I lost in North Korea. And the family I gained », Joseph Kim . A very touching and real story that makes us become aware of inhabitants’ lives in a strong dictatorship.
  • « Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model », Cameron Russell
  • « What Islam really says about women », Alaa Murabit
  • « How to spot a liar » Pamela Meyer
  • « The good news on poverty. (Yes, there’s good news) », Bono

Tell me if you’ve watched any of these videos 😉

joseph kim